Treatment of cellular tissues usually requires direct contact of target tissue with a medical instrument, usually by surgical procedures exposing both the target and intervening tissue to substantial trauma. Often, precise placement of a treatment probe is difficult because of the location of targeted tissues in the body or the proximity of the target tissue to easily damaged, critical body organs, nerves, or other components.
Benign prostatic hypertrophy or hyperplasia (BPH), for example, is one of the most common medical problems experienced by men over 50 years old. Urinary tract obstruction due to prostatic hyperplasia has been recognized since the earliest days of medicine. Hyperplastic enlargement of the prostate gland often leads to compression of the urethra, resulting in obstruction of the urinary tract and the subsequent development of symptoms including frequent urination, decrease in urinary flow, nocturia, pain, discomfort, and dribbling. The association of BPH with aging has been shown by the incidence of BPH in 50 percent of men over 50 years of age and increases in incidence to over 75 percent in men over 80 years of age. Symptoms of urinary obstruction occur most frequently between the ages of 65 and 70 when approximately 65 percent of men in this age group have prostatic enlargement.
Currently there is no nonsurgical method for treating BPH which has proven to be effective. In addition, the surgical procedures available are not totally satisfactory. Currently, patients suffering from the obstructive symptoms of this disease are provided with few options: continue to cope with the symptoms (i.e., conservative management), submit to drug therapy at early stages, or submit to surgical intervention. More than 430,000 patients per year in the United States undergo surgery for removal of prostatic tissue. These represent less than five percent of men exhibiting clinical significant symptoms.
Those suffering from BPH are often elderly men, many with additional health problems which increase the risk of surgical procedures. Surgical procedures for the removal of prostatic tissue are associated with a number of hazards including anesthesia related morbidity, hemorrhage, coagulopathies, pulmonary emboli and electrolyte imbalances. These procedures performed currently can also lead to cardiac complications, bladder perforation, incontinence, infection, urethral or bladder neck stricture, retention of prostatic chips, retrograde ejaculation, and infertility. Due to the extensive invasive nature of the current treatment options for obstructive uropathy, the majority of patients delay definitive treatment of their condition. This circumstance can lead to serious damage to structures secondary to the obstructive lesion in the prostate (bladder hypertrophy, hydronephrosis, dilation of the kidney pelves, chronic infection, dilation of ureters, etc.), which is not without significant consequences. Also, a significant number of patients with symptoms sufficiently severe to warrant surgical intervention are therefore poor operative risks and are poor candidates for prostatectomy. In addition, younger men suffering from BPH who do not desire to risk complications such as infertility are often forced to avoid surgical intervention. Thus the need, importance and value of improved surgical and non-surgical methods for treating BPH are unquestionable.
High-frequency currents are used in electrocautery procedures for cutting human tissue, especially when a bloodless incision is desired or when the operating site is not accessible with a normal scalpel but presents an access for a thin instrument through natural body openings such as the esophagus, intestines or urethra. Examples include the removal of prostatic adenomas, bladder tumors or intestinal polyps. In such cases, the high-frequency current is fed by a surgical probe into the tissue to be cut. The resulting dissipated heat causes boiling and vaporization of the cell fluid at this point, whereupon the cell walls rupture, and the tissue is separated.
Ablation of cellular tissues in situ has been used in the treatment of many diseases and medical conditions alone or as an adjunct to surgical removal procedures. It is often less traumatic than surgical procedures and may be the only alternative where other procedures are unsafe. Ablative treatment devices have the advantage of using an electromagnetic energy which is rapidly dissipated and reduced to a non-destructive level by conduction and convection forces of circulating fluids and other natural body processes.
Microwave, radio frequency (RF), acoustical (ultrasound) and light energy (laser) devices, and tissue destructive substances have been used to destroy malignant, benign and other types of cells and tissues from a wide variety of anatomic sites and organs. Tissues treated include isolated carcinoma masses in organs such as the prostate, and glandular and stromal nodules characteristic of benign prostate hyperplasia. These devices typically include a catheter or cannula which is used to carry a radio frequency electrode or microwave antenna through a duct to the zone of treatment and apply energy diffusely through the duct wall into the surrounding tissue in all directions. Severe trauma is often sustained by the duct wall during this cellular ablation process, and some devices combine cooling systems with microwave antennas to reduce trauma to the ductal wall. For treating the prostate with these devices, for example, heat energy is delivered through the walls of the urethra into the surrounding prostate cells in an effort to ablate the tissue causing the constriction of the urethra. Light energy, typically from a laser, is delivered to prostate tissue target sites by "burning through" the wall of the urethra. Healthy cells of the duct wall and healthy tissue between the nodules and duct wall are also indiscriminately destroyed in the process and can cause unnecessary loss of some prostate function. Furthermore, the added cooling function of some microwave devices complicates the apparatus and requires that the device be sufficiently large to accommodate this cooling system.